Israel responds to three rockets from Lebanon with artillery fire; Army tells Gazans to leave some areas, as death toll in Strip reaches 150; UN Security Council calls for cease-fire; American woman dies of heart attack after siren in Jerusalem

Israelis take cover in Jerusalem on July 12, 2014, during a rocket attack by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip. (photo credit: AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)

Palestinian firefighters try to extinguish fire at UN storehouse after an Israeli military strike in an area west of Gaza City on July 12, 2014. (photo credit: AFP/Mahmud Hams)

A July 12 picture of the house in the Nahal Beka neighborhood in Beersheba that was directly hit by a rocket on the fourth day of Operation Protective Edge, on the night of July 11. (Photo credit: Flash90)

Palestinians gather around the ruins of the Al-Tawfeeq mosque after it was hit by an Israeli missile strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 12, 2014. Israeli airstrikes overnight targeting Hamas in Gaza hit the mosque, which Israel said concealed weapons. (photo credit: AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Trucks transport IDF tanks on a road leading to southern Israel, on July 12, 2014, as Israel warns of a possible ground operation in the Gaza Strip (Photo credit: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)

Security forces at the site of a house in Beersheba which was destroyed following a Gaza rocket attack on July 11, 2014 (Photo credit: FLASH90)

A pro-Palestinian activist participates in a rally against the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip outside the Mexican Foreign Ministry building in Mexico City on July 11, 2014 (Photo credit: Yuri Cortez/AFP)

A picture taken from the southern Israel-Gaza border shows a rocket being launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel on Friday, July 11, 2014. (photo credit: Menahem Kahana/AFP)

Israelis sit and pray together inside a street shelter, in anticipation of the Code Red siren alerting of incoming rockets, in the Southern Israeli town of Nitzan, on the fourth day of Operation Protective Edge, July 11, 2014 (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Smoke billows from buildings following an Israeli air strike on Gaza City on July 11, 2014. (photo credit: Mohammed Othman/AFP)

An Artillery Corps soldier is seen in a field near the border with Gaza in southern Israel, on the fourth day of Operation Protective Edge, July 11, 2014. (photo credit: Hadas Parush/Flash90)

The Irone dome rocket seen flying over central Israel on July 09, 2014. Israel launched an offensive against the Gaza Strip with a series of airstrikes in response to increasing rocket attacks into Israel, by Palestinian militants. (photo credit: Nati Shohat/Flash90)

Israelis seen at a bar in Tel Aviv, central Israel. Several alarms sounded in the past few days warning about rockets fired from Gaza into Israel, and the Tel Aviv area. They were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile system. July 10, 2014. (photo credity: Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

Writers

Yifa Yaakov
Yifa Yaakov is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.

Five days after the launch of Operation Protective Edge, Israel’s effort to put a halt to Hamas rocket fire, some 600 rockets had been fired from Gaza at Israel. Rockets fired throughout Saturday targeted communities near the Gaza Strip as well as Beersheba, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Rehovot and Rishon Lezion. Hamas launched a major assault on central Israel in late evening. An American tourist died of a heart attack after sirens wailed in Jerusalem. Palestinian reports say at least 150 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air strikes, including more than 15 in a strike late Saturday aimed at Hamas’s Gaza police chief. The Times of Israel liveblogged events throughout the day. (Sunday’s liveblog is here.)

Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, says strong diplomatic support from Israel’s international partners will be conducive to reaching a cease-fire in Gaza.

Speaking minutes after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that no amount of world pressure would deter Israel from hitting Hamas to stop the rocket fire, Dermer emphasizes that the opposite is also true – that in cases in which world powers support Israel’s right to defend its citizens, it facilitates de-escalation.

Israeli Ambassador to the US presents his credentials to President Barack Obama at the White House, December 4, 2013 (photo credit: Twitter/ Amb. Ron Dermer)

Dermer says President Barack Obama has not wavered from the strong support that the US provided Israel during its last round of airstrikes against terror groups in Gaza in 2012’s Operation Pillar of Defense.

“In eight days in 2012, the president and the prime minister spoke four times and there was very strong support of the president of Israel’s right to defend itself,” Dermer tells reporters during a conference call sponsored by The Israel Project. “There is no indication that this time is different.”

Six said killed in 2 Israeli airstrikes on Gaza

Separate Israeli air strikes early Saturday kill four people in Jabaliya, in the northern Gaza Strip, and two further south in Deir el-Balah, Palestinian emergency services say, revising an earlier report of three fatalities in the Jabaliya strike.

The strikes on the fifth day of the Israeli campaign to put a stop to Palestinian rocket fire from Gaza into Israel bring the number of Palestinians killed so far to 110.

Kuwait calls for urgent meeting on Gaza crisis

The Arab foreign ministers’ meeting is expected to take place on Monday, an Arab League official tells AFP.

Kuwait, the current rotating president of the Arab League summit, requests the meeting “to discuss the deterioration of the situation in the Gaza Strip,” its permanent representative to the Pan-Arab organisation, Aziz Rahim Al-Daihani, tells AFP.

The move comes as the United States says it is ready to leverage its relationships in the Middle East to try to bring about a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist movement ruling Gaza.

Palestinian sources say Grads seized after firefight

Amid reports that Egypt security forces this morning thwarted an attempt to smuggle 20 rockets from the Gaza Strip into the Sinai region, the Palestinian Ma’an news agency says the munitions were seized after a firefight between terrorists in the town of Rafah and Egyptian security forces.

At the end of the shootout, the Egyptian authorities seized the projectiles, Ma’an reports.

The projectiles were apparently meant to be used in attacks against Israel from the peninsula.

Hagel reiterates US support for Israel to Ya’alon

US defense secretary Chuck Hagel speaks with Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, telling him he is concerned about the possibility of a further escalation in Gaza but voicing US support for Israel in protecting its civilians.

Ya’alon updates Hagel on the situation in Israel, while the defense secretary reiterates the US administration’s condemnation of the rocket fire from Gaza and its support for Israel’s right to defend itself.

Hagel says both sides to make every every to protect civilians and restore calm in the area.

Roger Waters urges Neil Young to nix Israel gig

English musician and singer Roger Waters posts a letter on his official Facebook page, asking singer-songwriter Neil Young to cancel his upcoming performance in Tel Aviv, set to take place this Thursday.

Waters reveals that he had written and sent the letter to Young in January, but after receiving no reply, is posting it on Facebook “in light of the appalling recent events in Israel and Gaza” and the Pink Floyd frontman’s “dismay at the the lack of any response from our governments.”

In an appeal to Young’s “possible attachment to the rights of all human beings,” Waters writes, “Like some others, but not many, your songs have always been redolent of love and humanity and compassion for your fellow man and woman. I find it hard to believe that you would turn your back on the indigenous people of Palestine. That you would lend support to, and encourage and legitimize, with your presence, a colonial apartheid regime, largely settled from Europe, that seeks to confine the native people of the land, either in exile or in second class status in reservations and ghettos.”

Roger Waters (photo credit: Lior Mizrahi/Flash90)

Attaching an article about the demolition of the Bedouin village of al-Araqib, Waters promises, “If you are in doubt about any of this, I will go with you to Palestine, and Israel, if they’ll let me in, you will see what I have seen, and then let us figure out the right thing to do.”

In IDF video, pilot calls off strike to spare civilians

The IDF releases a video showing an area in Gaza that an Israel Air Force Pilot has been ordered to strike. When the pilot sees the area, he observes a large gathering of people on the ground and informs his headquarters. After a pause, he receives word that the army has decided to call off the strike.

Code Red alert heard in Eshkol region

No normalization with ‘oppressive’ Israel, vows Erdogan

Turkish President Abdullah Gul calls on Israel to halt its offensive on the Gaza Strip and not to carry out a ground incursion, while Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says there can be no normalizing of Turkish-Israeli ties as long as Israel’s actions continue.

“I would like to remind Israel that (a ground operation) would lead to dangerous developments and sow the seeds of hatred,” Gul says on his way out of a mosque following Friday prayers.

“Such an escalation could lead to chaos in our region,” he said.

Erdogan, meanwhile, says a restoration of ties between Israel and Turkey cannot take place in the current state of affairs.”

“We cannot look positively at a process of normalization while bombs are raining on our (Palestinian) brothers,” Erdogan said at a meeting where he unveiled his policy aims if elected president. “We cannot be on the side of the oppressor.”

Palestinians say 5 killed in early-morning Gaza raids

Palestinian medics say at least five Palestinians are killed in two Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip early this morning, raising the toll in the violence to 118.

Two are killed in a strike that hits a charitable association for the disabled in Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza, while three others die in a second strike in western Gaza City, local health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra says.

UN doubts legality of Israeli air campaign

Israel’s air campaign in Gaza may violate international laws prohibiting the targeting of civilians, says the UN’s top human rights official.

Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, says the IDF, which says it has hit more than 1,100 targets, most of them rocket-launching sites, and the Gaza terrorists who have fired more than 550 rockets against Israel, must abide by international law.

“We have received deeply disturbing reports that many of the civilian casualties, including of children, occurred as a result of strikes on homes,” Pillay says. “Such reports raise serious doubt about whether the Israeli strikes have been in accordance with international humanitarian law and international human rights law.”

Pillay says she’s seen for herself in Gaza how traumatic the airstrikes and rocket attacks are for civilians, particularly children. Her office says civilians bear the brunt of the conflict now — and all sides must refrain from launching attacks or putting military weapons in densely populated areas.

“Israel, Hamas, and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza have been down this road before, and it has led only to death, destruction, distrust and a painful prolongation of the conflict,” Pillay said.

Palestinian UN resolution urges ceasefire, keeps mum on rockets

The Palestinians and their international supporters are discussing the text of a UN resolution that would condemn all violence against civilians in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and call for “an immediate, durable and fully respected cease-fire.”

An initial draft of the proposed Security Council resolution, obtained by The Associated Press, expresses “grave concern” at the escalating violence and deteriorating situation in the Palestinian territories due to Israeli military operations, particularly against the Gaza Strip, and at the heavy civilian casualties including children.

The draft doesn’t mention Hamas’ firing of rockets into Israel, which is likely unacceptable to the US.

The council is deeply divided and often paralyzed over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with the United States defending close ally Israel and the majority of other council members firmly backing the Palestinians.

Israel strikes Gaza mosque used as ‘weapon cache’

The IDF says it carried out an air strike on a mosque in Gaza overnight which was being used by terror groups to store weaponry.

“Overnight, the IDF targeted a weapon cache concealed within a mosque in the central Gaza Strip,” the army says.

An image provided by the IDF shows a mosque in Gaza which was targeted by an Israeli air strike on Friday night, July 11. The army says the holy site was used by terror groups to store weaponry. (Photo credit: IDF)

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner adds: “Hamas, a terror organization motivated by a radically interpreted religious ideology, abuses religious sites such as mosques to plot against Israeli civilians, as well as to conceal weaponry.

“Hamas terrorists systematically exploit and choose to put Palestinians in Gaza in harm’s way and continue to locate their positions among civilian areas and mosques, proving once more their disregard for human life and holy sites.”

Two rockets explode in the Eshkol region

Arab league to meet Monday on Gaza crisis

A senior Arab league official says Arab foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting in Cairo on Monday to discuss the continued Israeli offensive in Gaza and measures to urge the international community to pressure Israel.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas requested the meeting, which was approved by several Arab foreign ministers in coordination with the Arab League. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief journalists.

Protests against Israel held in London, Paris and Oslo

Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators call for an end to “Israeli aggression” in London, Paris and Oslo.

According to the UK’s Daily Mail website, protesters jam the British capital’s Kensington High Street, and some of the demonstrators stand on one of the city’s red double-decker buses.

Signs held aloft by those gathered in protest read: “Gaza: End the Siege” and “Freedom for Palestine,” and one of the more than dozen protesters atop the bus holds a sign which says, “Judaism rejects the Zionist state and condemns its criminal siege and occupation.”

US moves embassy staff out of rocket-hit Beersheba

As rockets continue to rain down on southern Israel, the US Embassy announces it has relocated embassy staff working in Beersheba to the Tel Aviv suburb of Herzliya.

“The Embassy and its annexes continue to operate at minimal staffing. The Consular Section will continue to provide only emergency services. Embassy personnel are not permitted to travel south of greater Tel Aviv without prior approval,” the embassy said in a statement. “Embassy families living in Tel Aviv and greater Tel Aviv, such as Herzliya, are being advised to remain in close communication with one another.”

Hamas music video aims to ‘shake Israel’s security’

A new Hamas music video, sung entirely in broken Hebrew, aims to frighten Israelis but may achieve the opposite.

The music video opens with Palestinian Hamas fighters in fatigues building, transporting and then firing rockets at Israel.

“We prepare a generation of warriors who cling to death like the enemy clings to life,” the words run, with Arabic subtitles.

“A (nation) state of weakness and illusion can’t hold out during wars,” it continues, referring to Israel. “They fall apart like spider webs when they meet knights.”

Despite the song’s intended goal, the singers’ poor command of Hebrew as well as their heavy accents are likely to elicit an amused response from Hebrew-speaking listeners.

Similar songs have in the past proved rather popular on Israeli social media — though more as objects of ridicule than as a threat which should be taken seriously, probably not the effect Hamas had in mind.

MKs say Israel not interested in ceasefire

Hamas cannot dictate to Israel the terms of a ceasefire, Ofir Akunis, a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, says in an interview on Israel Radio, adding that Israel will continue to target Hamas leaders and terrorist infrastructure.

Likud MK Ofir Akunis (photo credit: Flash90)

Addressing increasing international calls of concern regarding the loss of civilian life in Gaza, Akunis says that Israel does not want to harm innocent Palestinians, but Hamas is hiding rockets in schools and private homes.

MK Ronen Hoffman (Yesh Atid) echoes Akunis in saying he does not support a one-sided cease-fire, citing that the foremost goal of the operation is to restore quiet to Israeli citizens, while the second goal is to dismantle Hamas’ rocket infrastructure.

Hoffman, who serves on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, also praises the courage of Israeli citizens.

“The courage and fortitude of the [Israeli] citizens is no less significant than military pressure,” he says at an event in Givatayim, just east of Tel Aviv. “Public resilience is a central part of how we show the other side – you cannot win.”

45 rockets launched at Israel so far today, 2 intercepted

Forty-five rockets and mortars have been launched at Israel from Gaza since midnight Saturday, with most landing in open terrain and two intercepted by the Iron Dome system, according to the latest IDF figures.

Since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge early Tuesday, 564 rockets and mortars have struck Israeli territory with an additional 140 shot done by Iron Dome.

In Gaza, the IAF says 108 Hamas and Islamic Jihad sites have been struck so far today, bringing the total of targets hits since the start of the operation to just over 1,200.

According to Palestinian sources, 127 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza since the start of the military campaign, with 22 deaths today, including two nephews of former Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh.

Mideast Quartet rep Tony Blair in Egypt to discuss Gaza

Mideast Quartet representative Tony Blair is in Cairo meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sissi on the situation in Gaza, setting off rumors that a cease-fire may be in the offing, Israel Radio reports.

The Egyptian president warned earlier of “the dangers of military escalation, and the casualties it would cause among innocent civilians.”

Israel has signaled that is in not interested in a cease-fire at this time, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying the military campaign will not stop until the missile threat from Hamas is over.

Ceasefire talks gathers pace… albeit only in TV studio

Channel 2’s savvy Middle East analyst Ehud Ya’ari says he believes most of the components for a ceasefire are at hand, but “there’s no doctor” to put the pieces together.

Ehud Yaari (photo credit: courtesy)

He says that Mahmoud Abbas should be the mediator. Israel might not like everything Abbas says, argues Ya’ari, but he’s a credible “address,” a leader recognized as the PA president by Hamas, and someone who proposed yesterday that first the sides should stop firing, and then they should work out the ceasefire terms.

Despite PM Netanyahu’s tough talk yesterday about not being deterred by any international pressure from attacking a terror group bent on Israel’s destruction, and Liberman’s demand for the destruction of Hamas, Ya’ari says the foreign minister’s goal is emphatically not going to be sought, and that the likelihood of a major ground offensive is small.

He does allow that there might yet be a limited use of ground forces, against specific targets.

While Ya’ari believes Hamas is looking for a way out, his Channel 2 colleague Nir Dvori immediately follows up by reporting that Hamas is still desperately trying to pull off a “major” or “quality” attack — that is, killing lots of Israelis with a rocket strike, sea infiltration, cross-border tunnel raid, kidnapping soldiers and/or civilians, including in Israel and the West Bank, or such like — so that it has “something to show the Gaza public.” Dvori also reports, from southern Israel, that IDF preparations for a ground offensive are continuing.

Dvori also says Hamas is having an increasingly difficult time maintaining rocket fire, as the IAF strikes take their toll. This despite 50-plus rocket attacks on Israel so far today. He says Egypt, Qatar, the PA and the US are all potential factors in ceasefire efforts.

Sports and Culture Minister Limor Livnat (Uri Lenz/Flash90)

In the studio, Likud minister Limor Livnat notes that Netanyahu said yesterday the Israeli attacks on Hamas would continue until calm was restored. “We’ve not reached that point yet,” Livnat notes.

Meretz leader Zahava Gal-on also advocates Abbas as a potential mediator for what she says is an urgently needed ceasefire.

Meretz MK Zahava Gal-On. December 25, 2013. (Photo credit: Flash 90)

Israel seems to be trapped in the false notion that “what can’t be achieved through the use of force can be achieved with the use of more force.” She highlights that well over 100 people have been killed in Gaza, including civilians, says a major ground offensive would cause lots more bloodshed on both sides, and warns of growing overseas delegitimization of Israel as the days pass.

Sirens sound in Ashdod, Rechovot, Nes Tziona, Lod

UN Security Council to call for Israel-Hamas cease-fire

The UN Security Council is set to issue a statement condemning all violence against civilians and calling for a restoration of calm.

According to a post on the Twitter feed of the Palestine Mission to the UN, the statement will call for the “reinstitution of the November 2012 cease-fire” and the resumption of talks between Israel and the Palestinians, which collapsed in late April after a nine-month, US-brokered effort.

The text of the statement was drafted by the United States and Jordan, Israel Radio reports.

Some flights being delayed, others moved

Some flights are being delayed due to the reduction in civil air space, and the Israel Airports Authority is advising travelers to check for updates from their airline and the IAA before flying.

Israeli airline companies Arkia and Israir are moving their flights from Sde Dov Airport in northern Tel Aviv to Ben Gurion International Airport, which lies about 20 km (nine miles) West of Tel Aviv.

Israel Radio reports that Friday night, a flight by Polish airline Lot decided to land in Cyprus instead of Israel after it received instructions from the control tower at Ben Gurion to wait before landing due to rocket fire in the area.

A boy looks down at El Al jets parked on the tarmac of Ben Gurion International Airport (photo credit: Flash90)

‘Only one Haniyeh relative killed, and he was about to fire rockets at Israel’

Latest reports say one of Ismail Haniyeh’s relatives, not two, died in an Israeli air raid earlier this afternoon.

Channel 2 says the dead man was a known terrorist, who had been involved in rocket fire at Israel, and was with a group who were about to fire on Israel again.

The dead man was a grandson of Haniyeh’s sister, not her son, as previously thought.

The television report says the Israeli strike took place in Gaza’s Sheikh Radwan district. It quotes military sources saying three other people were injured. One of them, according to Palestinian reports, is also a relative of the former Hamas Gaza prime minister.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague says he will discuss an international push for a ceasefire in Gaza with US Secretary of State John Kerry and his German and French counterparts during talks in Vienna on Sunday.

Hague said in a statement on Saturday that the discussions on ending the hostilities between Israel and Gaza would take place on the sidelines of talks on Iran’s nuclear programme in the Austrian capital.

“It is clear that we need urgent, concerted international action to secure a ceasefire, as was the case in 2012” during the last round of conflict between Israel and militants in the Palestinian coastal enclave, Hague said.

“I will discuss this with John Kerry, Laurent Fabius and Frank-Walter Steinmeier tomorrow [Sunday] in Vienna.”

He said he had also spoken by telephone on Saturday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman after 127 people died in five days of Israeli air strikes aimed at ending Hamas rocket fire.

“I stressed the need for an immediate de-escalation and restoration of the November 2012 ceasefire, our deep concern about the number of civilian casualties and the need for all sides to avoid further civilian injuries and the loss of innocent life,” Hague said.

“We are not looking for six months or a year of quiet, but long-term quiet,” he tells Channel 2.

Operation Protective Edge is aimed at restoring quiet, Lapid reiterates, adding that this is a face-off between a collapsing terrorist organization and a resilient Israel that will not tolerate having its citizens subjected to relentless rock fire.

IDF Arabic spokesman mocks Hamas rocket capabilities

“A few minutes ago, a useless rocket fired by the “resistance” landed, as it was intended, in the city of Hebron,” IDF Arabic spokesman Avichai Adraee writes on Facebook, according to a Hebrew translation by Ynet. “What’s your opinion on the remarks by a Hamas spokesperson that the “resistance” knows the geography and how to avoid hitting Arabs with missiles.”

Rocket shot down over Ashdod

Israel says every truce offer considered, but refuses to comment on reports

The purpose of Operation Protective Edge is to restore quiet, and Israel will “consider every offer that will lead to the fulfillment of the campaign’s objectives,” a diplomatic source in Jerusalem tells The Times of Israel.

However, the source refused to comment on reports on efforts by Qatar, Turkey and others to broker a ceasefire.

“If Hamas continues to fire on Israeli citizens, the Israel Defense Forces will continue to intensify its strikes against Hamas and other terrorists organizations in Gaza.”

The army is ready to widen the campaign, the source says, adding that dealing a significant blow to the Gaza terror groups and restoring quiet “for a long time” were and remain the operation’s overarching goal.

Iron Dome intercepts rocket over Tel Aviv

4 rockets launched, booms over greater Tel Aviv area, threats of more

Moments after sirens blare in Tel Aviv, Herzliya and Ramat Hasharon, several booms can be heard in the area.

A total of four rockets were launched from Gaza, with at least one intercepted by Iron Dome.

Rockets were aimed across the central region, setting off a series of sirens.

Israel is simultaneously carrying out a particularly heavy raid over Gaza, Channel 2 reports, in part apparently to make it harder for Hamas to launch.

Israel’s security chiefs are reminding Israelis to heed the correct procedures, stay in protected areas when sirens sound, and not go outside to watch Iron Dome in action.

This is rather surreal, to put it mildly — hearing sirens, then booms; watching Israeli TV report Hamas’s Hebrew threats; watching Israeli TV showing the rockets being fired out of Gaza — aimed at us — and watching the live TV footage of those rockets being (mercifully thus far) intercepted.

Hamas says this is only the first barrage of its threatened challenge to Iron Dome, and that more will follow.

Israelis seen at a bar in Tel Aviv, central Israel. Several alarms sounded in the past few days warning about rockets fired from Gaza into Israel, and the Tel Aviv area. They were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile system. July 10, 2014. (photo credity: Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

Australian FM regrets ‘retaliatory acts’ from both sides

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says she regrets “retaliatory acts” from both Israelis and Palestinians, calling on the two warring sides to exercise restraint.

“The actions of militants in Gaza, who are firing rockets indiscriminately into Israel, are inexcusable and must be condemned,” she says in a statement. “The retaliatory acts from both sides that have led to civilian deaths and injuries are deeply regrettable, and I call on all parties to exercise restraint and do everything necessary to avoid a further escalation of violence.”

In the statement, Bishop says that Canberra urges Australians currently in the Gaza Strip “to make arrangements to depart immediately.” Australians are strongly advised not to travel to the Gaza Strip because of the “extremely dangerous and unpredictable security situation and the possibility of further Israeli military operations against militants.”

The embassy in Tel Aviv is arranging a “one-off assisted departure” of Australian citizens currently in the Strip.

Two rockets explode in open terrain in Beersheba

Canada defends Israel to UN human rights chief

Canada slams the United Nation’s top human rights official for questioning the legality of Israel’s air strikes in Gaza.

“Canada rejects UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay’s uncalled-for criticism of Israel’s response to rocket attacks from Gaza. Focusing her comments on Israel is neither helpful nor reflective of the reality of this crisis,” Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird says.

“There must be no moral equivalence between Hamas, a listed terrorist organization, and its blatant disregard for human life, and the liberal democratic State of Israel’s duty and obligation to defend its people from cowardly and indiscriminate attacks,” he says.

While Ottawa mourns the “death and suffering of innocent civilians in Gaza,” Hamas and its allies bear all responsibility for the current crisis as they continue to shoot rockets at Israel, Baird says. The Israeli army takes “extraordinary steps to reduce civilian casualties in very difficult and trying conditions” and Israel should be commended for these efforts, “in the face of an enemy clearly determined to put civilians, from both sides, in mortal danger to suit its own purposes.”

Earlier on Saturday, Pillay said “deeply disturbing” reports of civilian casualties in Gaza resulting from IDF bombardments of homes raise “serious doubt about whether the Israeli strikes have been in accordance with international humanitarian law and international human rights law.”

Police separate competing protests in Haifa

Police are separating two competing protests in Haifa, with a 150 Jews and Arabs calling for an end to the operation in Gaza and 50 people waving Israeli flags demonstrating opposite them, according to Ynet.

IDF targets source of Tel Aviv barrage

The IDF says that it struck northern Gaza, targeting the launcher used to fire a barrage of rockets at Tel Aviv earlier in the hour. Ynet reports the source of the attack was in the city of Beit Lahiya.

A short while ago in northern Gaza, IDF aircraft targeted the rocket launcher that was used to fire the recent barrage on Tel Aviv.

Hamas, Hezbollah coordinating on the ground, says Hamas official

Hamas and Lebanese terror group Hezbollah are coordinating and “exchanging expertise” on Israel, a Hamas official in Lebanon says.

“The enemy is the same and our tactics are the same. Therefore, we put in efforts to exchange expertise. There is constant field cooperation and coordination,” the Lebanese Daily Star quotes Osama Hamdan as saying.

“The relationship with Hezbollah and Iran today is better than everyone thinks, and ties with Hezbollah [specifically] is by far better than what [enemy] optimists want to believe,” Hamadan,says. “These ties are based on confronting the Zionist and working on liberating Palestine. Everyone is keen on preserving such a relationship regardless of how much the circumstances change and opinions differ.”

Hamdan says Hamas is able to withstand Israeli attacks and is capable “of continuing to fire rockets and confront any ground operation and reach deep into Israel.”

“The resistance has grown from a military faction to include more people, and now today involves the general population. Therefore, it is difficult to defeat it, but the battle will take some time and there are plenty of surprises to come,” he says.

The relationship between Hamas and Hezbollah deteriorated over the Syrian crisis as the Sunni Hamas criticized the regime of Bashar Assad over its brutal crackdown and the Shi’ite Hezbollah continues to alongside the Syrian army.

Sirens blare in Nahariya, across Galilee in north

Sirens sound in Nahariya and across the Galilee region amid reports of renewed rocket fire on northern Israel.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

Early Friday morning, two rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israeli territory landing near the northern town on Metulla. The Lebanese army said it arrested two Palestinians in connection with the rocket fire.

15 Palestinians said killed in air strikes in Gaza City

At least 15 Palestinians were killed in new Israeli strikes on Gaza City, medics in the coastal enclave say.

“At least 15 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on the Tuffah neighborhood in Gaza City that hit a house and a mosque,” Gaza emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra says. An earlier toll said 10 were killed.

Al Jazeera says the strike hit the home of the Al-Batsh family. Israel’s Channel 2 says the apparent target was Tayseer Batsh, a Hamas police chief, who was reportedly injured in the strike.

Another 35 were injured in the same strike, and one more person was killed in southern Gaza’s Rafah, Qudra said.

Gaza police chief among 16 killed in Israeli air strike

Hamas urges residents not to heed IDF call to leave specific areas

Gaza’s Hamas-run Interior Ministry is reported to be urging Gazans not to heed Israeli army warnings to evacuate areas that are about to be hit.

The Israeli military issued the warning earlier tonight, telling Palestinians living in the northern Gaza Strip to leave the area.According to a report on Channel 10, Israel is set to attack sites previously not targeted because of their sensitivities.

Brig. Gen. Motti Almoz, the chief military spokesman, said Israel planned to hit the area with heavy force in the next 24 hours as it steps up an offensive against Gaza militants.

As day five comes to an end

It’s a little after 1.00 am in Jerusalem, the end of a long, violent day. The Israeli army is in the process of warning residents of Gaza to leave certain neighborhoods where it is planning to attack. Hamas is maintaining its rocket fire into Israel, and also claiming responsibility for three rockets fired into northern Israel from Lebanon just before 11 pm on Saturday. We’ll close this liveblog now, and our colleague Haviv Rettig Gur will be taking up the strain in a few moments with a new liveblog. Good night.

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